The Cooking Bug

I have caught it again, guys. Well, actually I didn't feel like cooking At All yesterday, so we ate leftovers all day, but today the urge to exercise my culinary muscles has returned. Does anyone else out there in InternetLand find recipes for things they have no idea how to make and then totally change them on a whim? Because I do that all the time. I almost never make a recipe exactly as written. I'm always adding something or leaving something out (on purpose). Tonight I am going to make chicken & rice for dinner (no, I have never made chicken & rice before, now kindly pick yourselves up off the floor), and I am totally not using the exact recipe I printed out. I wanted a recipe that did not invlove canned soup or heavy cream. Not because I have anything against canned soup or heavy cream, but because I have none of either in the house, and I've already been to the grocery store once today, thank you (I was buying ingredients for blackberry tarts. Actually, the recipe was for raspberry tarts, but I made blackberry instead. See? I can't help myself). I also wanted one that didn't call for instant rice. I have instant rice, but I just prefer the non-instant kind.

So, I found myself a recipe for chicken and rice using uncooked, regular, long-grain rice (I am using brown rice) and evaporated milk. But it also calls for celery, which I don't have. But I am totally going to add onions and bell pepper, which the recipe does not call for. But I have onions and a yellow bell pepper, and I am going to use them. Don't judge me. Anyway, I hope it doesn't suck. But there is still some leftover spaghetti in case Max won't eat it.

I hope I don't cut myself tonight. I already have three cuts on my hands, and I don't need anymore right now, thank you. I am such a klutz. The other day when I was chopping vegetables and herbs for chicken and risotto, I got a little careless with my knife, and cut my middle finger. Thankfully, the knife also hit my fingernail or that situation would have been really bad. In retrospect, that cut probably could have used a stitch or two anyway. It was pretty small (maybe 1/4" long) but kind of deep for a cut on a finger. Later on, I cut my other hand opening a can of parmesan cheese. That's what I get for not grating it fresh, right? I have another cut on my other middle finger, but I don't know where that one came from.

So yeah, no more cuts today. I just sharpened my knives, too, so wish me luck.